Month: April 2011

After months of rain and wind the weather has finally given us a day that doesn’t make a lie out of the tourist promotion ‘Queensland – beautiful one day, perfect the next’. I went for a swim in the little bay near here and quickly learned that with only one arm working properly I was soon swimming in circles. Floating was definitely the thing to do.

WriteFest is only four weeks away and I’m trying desperately to make sure everything will run smoothly. For anyone who is unaware of WriteFest, it’s a day of workshops by industry professionals for aspiring to advanced writers. It’s fantastic value for money at only $75 and for that we even feed you! If you want more information check out bundywriters.com

Just to give you an idea of the quality of workshop presenters we have every year, here’s a pic of New York Times best-selling author Stephanie Laurens and writer Di Wills (with me in the middle) at WriteFest 2009.

I went to a promotion and marketing seminar last Saturday and came away realising how much of a dodo I am when it comes to using electronic media. I have a facebook page but I don’t really understand all I can do with it. I am learning, however. That’s the way of it these days; if you want to be a published author you have to learn how to reach your readers in all the ways that they use. A writer friend of mine recently grumbled, “Whatever happened to the days when all you had to do was write a darn good book!” I can sympathise with her because I’m sure my brain is not hot-wired the way my IT specialist son’s is. Actually, without his help, I’m sure I would have given my computer to my husband to use as an anchor many times.

I’ve decided to change the title of my work-in-progress to Conceptions and Misconceptions. It follows on from Murder, Mayhem and Menopause – a completely new story, but continuing the lives of Ellie, Cass and Kandy and their families and friends. This will be mainly Kandy’s story. After the bruising she copped in MM&M I’ve decided to give her something to look forward to, but she has to go through a lot of angst beforehand. I do wish I could say that MM&M has found a publishing home, but I still have my fingers crossed. I would dearly love to share these wonderful characters with my readers.

Sometimes writers develop a fondness for a particular character they create, and in my short stories that character is Amy Dawson. She started out in a serial I wrote for Woman’s Day. The editor liked her story and a year later another of Amy’s adventures was published. It’s been a few years since then and when I re-read the first story with the aim of putting it on my website I wondered why I hadn’t written another story about this cop who attracts trouble faster than ants find left-over cat food. Guess that will have to go on my ‘to do’ list. I hope you enjoy her first story in my not-very-imaginatively-titled Short Stories section.

What I’m trying to decide on at the moment is the title for the next book after Murder, Mayhem and Menopause. Should I continue the Murder, Mayhem etc theme with Murder, Mayhem and Misconceptions, or stay with the menopause angle and go with Misconceptions, Mayhem and Menopause? Any comments will be appreciated.

After a visit to the orthopaedic surgeon on Friday I am now splint-less. Unfortunately this doesn’t mean that the break has healed well or the arm is fully recovered – but if I don’t start moving it again the elbow and shoulder joint will freeze. So now I have little exercises to do like washing the knives and forks (I asked my husband if he’d phoned the doc and put him up to this, but he just laughed) but am not allowed to push, pull, pick up anything heavier than an empty cup etc, and to my dismay was told it will be six months before everything will be back to normal. I’m not good with inactivity, so will have to restrain myself from testing the boundaries of his orders.

Beautiful sunny weather today – might have to walk down to the bay near here and look at the ocean rolling in and smell the salt. I am such a coastal person! Love visiting the country, but this is where my heart lies.